The CIA is working closely with the government of Turkey behind the scenes to exacerbate the situation in Syria and create conditions for a regional war while U.S. officials and NATO publicly call for restraint.

“I can certainly assure you that our militaries, our military officers, are in contact,” Francis J. Ricciardone Jr. , the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, said on Tuesday. “This week I know there is a special focus of our military experts talking about Syria. And what militaries do well is plan for every contingency and every eventuality.”

Ricciardone said “no political decision has been made” on a no-fly zone over Syria, although the United States, Turkey and NATO are working on it.

U.S. intelligence agencies, the Washington Post reported on Friday, were behind the grounding of a Syrian plane last week en route from Moscow to Damascus. Turkey claimed the plane carried a nefarious cargo of weapons. The establishment media in the United States published accusations that the Russians were covertly arming the dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Following a concerted propaganda campaign to demonize Russia and Syria, it was learned that the cargo consisted of parts for Syria’s aging radar system. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov said the shipment of “electric equipment for radars” was a legitimate cargo in compliance with international law. Lavrov added that the equipment was of “dual purpose,” in other words it had civilian and military applications.

Turkey has continued shelling Syrian territory following an October 3 incident on the border when Syrian artillery killed civilians. The CIA and MI6-supported Free Syria Army has operated with Turkey’s blessing in the area shelled by Syria.

Turkey shelled Syria again on Friday and warned Damascus that the risk of all-out war is increasing. The border situation has “changed the strategic calculus and led U.S. military and intelligence officials in particular to collaborate more closely with Turkey,” according to the Post.

Officials in Turkey are setting the stage for a wider war against Syria. Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz and Gen. Necdet Ozel met with NATO but have not yet made a formal request for military assistance.

“For now, Turkey primarily wants statements of public support from NATO and reassurances that the alliance would come to its aid if necessary, said Ross Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey who now serves as director of the Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council in Washington,” the Post reports.

NATO is an important element in the war on al-Assad and Syria due to paralysis in the United Nations. “NATO is the new U.N. for Ankara when it comes to Syria,” explained Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an organization joined at the hip to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

WINEP is closely aligned with the neocons and has long pushed for aggressive policies by the United States against Syria and Iran.